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Elsewhere, public organizations met to select the candidates for the 750 seats that will be allotted to them in the new parliament. To the surprise of some members of the organizations, the groups elected a decidedly conservative slate of delegates. Many well-known perestroika supporters were passed over. The writers' union failed to nominate poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko, and the Academy of Sciences turned down physicist Roald Sagdeyev, whose calls for more perestroika have made him an increasingly popular figure.
As news spread that the social organizations were not backing the more radical proponents of perestroika, local groups formed in regular electoral districts to nominate many of those who had been passed over. After the Communist Party left former Moscow party leader Boris Yeltsin off its list of 100 candidates, 22 voters' groups around the country moved to draft him as their representative.Sakharov was nominated by an anti-Stalinist group at last week's session in the Cinematographers Union building, but only after the Academy of Sciences failed to select him.
Amid the confusion, candidates found themselves pitted against unexpected opponents. Voters who gathered in support of Sakharov learned that they may have nominated the human-rights activist to stand against maverick Communist Yeltsin. "It seems a waste," said a disgruntled voter. "Why do they have to run against each other?" Both candidates can still choose from several nominations, so a confrontation between the two is not inevitable. And whatever the shortcomings of the system, most voters seem to find the new procedures exhilarating. "At least we have some say in who will lead us," noted a 63-year-old Soviet who has participated in every election since 1947. "In the past, we didn't have any."
CHART: NOT AVAILABLE
CREDIT: TIME Chart by Joe Lertola
CAPTION: HOW THE ELECTION WORKS